I know you
by hat-and-goggles
Summary: In the time Jason spends where Talia and Ra's live, a little toddler finds the room they keep Jason in.


If he was completely honest with himself, Damian had no idea how he got stuck in this predicament. If he was completely honest with himself, he didn't even care. He just wanted to get out. And fast, if possible.

As it was right now he was stuck on Jason's lap. The bigger man's arms firmly around his shoulders, preventing him from getting away, and his chin resting on Damian's head. Damian was just happy nobody was around to see them like this.

"Damian,"

The boy craned his neck to get at least kind of a look at Jason.

"what I'm about to tell you is very personal, okay? I don't want to hear from anybody that you blabbed to them. Think you can do that?"

"-tt- Of course."

Jason chuckled.

"Right. Just checking."

Jason shifted a little to get a bit more comfortable, and Damian knew this was going to be a long, long night.

"After I came back from the dead and dug my way out of my coffin I spent a long time more or less brain dead. Basically I lived for a few years completely on muscle memory. You know that, right?"

Damian nodded. Of course he knew that, he'd been told that multiple times.

"Well, I said "more or less" brain dead. While I had absolutely no control over what I was doing, and my brain wasn't registering much, but I remember some things. There was this one night, and it was the craziest coincidence of my life, but your mom was in town. She somehow recognized me. She took me home, and she genuinely took care of me."

This part of the story, Damian had never heard before. He broke free from Jason's death grip around his shoulders and turned around to look at him. Jason was looking away from him, with a sad look in his eyes, but a fond smile on his lips. After a while Jason noticed Damian staring at him, he ran a hand through Damian's hair with that shit-eating, cocky grin he always had on his face.

"Anyway, you won't believe what happens next!"

"Please. I'm on the edge of my seat." Damian said in the most sarcastic tone he could muster.

"Your mom, she gave me a room at the League's headquarters."

"Shocking."

"Shoosh, little man. Every day and night the same people came to me at the same times to do the same things for me. Mind you, I was catatonic and couldn't do much of anything. Like, I would have if I could. But this one time, the door opened when nobody was supposed to come. It was a toddler. Probably around two or three years old, but absolutely not older. The first night he didn't dare to go past the door opening, the second night he actually went inside, the third night he actually closed the door behind him, and so on. Until maybe a week later, he climbed onto my lap, and looked at me with big eyes... and he started talking to me. And all his previous shyness and anxiousness just slipped away. He just kept talking, and talking, even if I didn't reply or understand a word he said."

Jason smiled sadly.

"I guess he just needed someone to listen to him."

Damian shifted in Jason's lap. He had no idea why he would tell him this. What point was he trying to make? Damian swore, if this anecdote ended in 'And that's how I nailed your mom.' again, he would have his head.

"I really loved that kid though. He was the only one there that showed some kind of emotion around me. Positive ones at that. He was so happy when I couldn't be. It lit up my world. There's two words I remember him saying though. 'Marhabaan' and 'shukraan'. I probably pronounced that wrong, and to this day I have no idea what either of those mean in their respective languages, but I guess they kind of mean a lot to me..."

"'Hello' and 'thank you'."

"Huh?"

"That's what they mean. 'Marhabaan' means 'hello', and 'shukraan' means 'thank you'."

Jason smiled.

"I guess that makes sense."

Then he sighed.

"When your mom put me in the Lazarus Pit and I was ready to wreak havoc on Gotham I was kind of sad, I guess. I thought I'd never see that precious little kid again."

Damian was confused. What did he mean, 'he thought'? Why would he ever see the kid again? Damian was lost in thought as Jason set him down on the couch and got up to stretch his legs, before crouching down in front of Damian and pinching his cheeks, the older man genuinely smiling at him from ear to ear.

"I'm glad I can see him every day now, even if he became a little shit."

"Wait-"

Jason got up and started walking away.

"Shukraan, Damian."

"-tt- Todd, wait!"

The end.


End file.
